The Online Course Coach Podcast | Tips & Interviews on How to Create Online Courses, eLearning, Video Training & Membership Sites - 11 Step Formula for Building a Profitable Business with Cliff Ravenscraft

11 Step Formula for Building a Profitable Business with Cliff Ravenscraft

06/22/18 • 67 min

The Online Course Coach Podcast | Tips & Interviews on How to Create Online Courses, eLearning, Video Training & Membership Sites

In this episode, I talk with Cliff Ravenscraft about the 11 proven steps to build and grow an online business. I’ve known Cliff for quite a long time now, I’ve hired him and have listened to his podcasts for many years.

Cliff started podcasting as a hobby back in 2005. A year later, he launched PodcastAnswerMan.com where he has since helped tens of thousands of individuals and organizations successfully launch a podcast through one on one coaching and online courses.

Today, Cliff mentors coaches, consultants and thought leaders through the transition from their unfulfilling day job to their own profitable online businesses so that they can live the life of their dreams and do the work they feel most called to do in this world.

Without further ado, here is Cliff’s step by step perspective on how to build a profitable online business.

Are you looking to create & sell more courses? What content do you want me to create that will help you the most? You can go to onlinecoursecoach.com/vote to share your thoughts. As a thank you, I created a free training called “3 Simple but Powerful Ways to Grow Your Email List” when you fill out the survey.

Dream big

Online business enthusiasts should determine the outcome they expect out their business. They should start by asking themselves why they want to invest in a particular business and if they have the time for it. Moreover, they should determine the amount of money the business must generate to sustain itself and whether they are willing to input the effort needed to generate the money.

Apart from the business part, one must think about the kind of life they want to live thereafter and if their business can help them live their dream lifestyle. It’s important to note every bit of it down so that they become goals that you work towards achieving.

Identify where you are already adding value to people’s life

Business aspirants ought to find their area of expertise, their talents, passion, and even their experience in the kind of business they want to start. This will make it easy for them to connect well with their target market. It also ensures that one can provide their target audience with exactly what solves their problem.

Determine the ideal customer for your business

Most people make the mistake of attracting the wrong customers to their business. Ideal customers must have purchasing power and a problem to be solved. Most importantly, they must be willing to pay something in order to get their problem solved.

Learn about your ideal customer’s problem

The best way to do this is through conversations with people who somehow fit your ideal customer. Find out what their struggles are and the pains that lie within. The goal is to find the best way to solve their problems and even learn how to communicate with them effectively.

Determine the type of products and services to offer your target audience

This is where business enthusiasts have to delve into one on one coaching. It’s more about finding out what people need and how you can offer them exactly that.

Create your value proposition statement

A value proposition statement is the elevator pitch of a business. Before creating a value proposition statement, one must answer these questions: who they are? what is their professional identity? what problem can they solve to people, how and why do they solve it?

For instance, here is Cliff’s value proposition statement:

“I mentor coaches, consultants and thought leaders through the transition from an unfulfilling day job to a profitable online business so that you can live the life of your dreams and do the work you feel most called to do in the world.”

In short, it should be intriguing and still give people enough reason to follow you.

Validate your business

A business is not valid until an actual transaction happens between a course creator and their ideal customer. There’s no point of spending time and money preparing a course for 3 months without the surety that someone will buy. Most course creators make this mistake and forget to market and sell the product first. Rather, they should prepare something like an outline for their course and see if someone will buy the idea. Once that happens, then business starters can be sure that they have a valid business.

Content creation

This is where people can create websites to help them sell their products and services effectively. At this point, business owners can create detailed content for their audience because they would already have known that people are interested in buying it – from step 7.

Grow your audience

There are ma...

Without further ado, here is Cliff’s step by step perspective on how to build a profitable online business.

Are you looking to create & sell more courses? What content do you want me to create that will help you the most? You can go to onlinecoursecoach.com/vote to share your thoughts. As a thank you, I created a free training called “3 Simple but Powerful Ways to Grow Your Email List” when you fill out the survey.

Dream big

Identify where you are already adding value to people’s life

Determine the ideal customer for your business

Learn about your ideal customer’s problem

Determine the type of products and services to offer your target audience

This is where business enthusiasts have to delve into one on one coaching. It’s more about finding out what people need and how you can offer them exactly that.

Create your value proposition statement

For instance, here is Cliff’s value proposition statement:

In short, it should be intriguing and still give people enough reason to follow you.

Validate your business

Content creation

Grow your audience

There are ma...

Previous Episode

Simple but Proven Marketing Strategies to Promote Online Courses with Jason Van Orden

One of the most important parts of online training has to do with finding your target audience, knowing how to serve them and building a community. While marketing is important, the key is to serve your community first. Jason Van Orden has been doing that online and in person many years and is considered one of the pioneers in this space.

I first got introduce to Jason through his podcast. I later became a paying member of his membership site and have always greatly respected him. He helps people create new income streams from their expertise. He gives personal experience from his over 60 online courses that’s he’s created over the years.

Jason talks about consulting and how he has managed to charge premium prices. I personally hire coaches and consultants to give me their extensive experience and expertise. Coaches are found in all aspects of your life from health, income and personal growth. And that’s one of the reasons I provide coaching. I know I can help you find clarity on your idea, create your course so your audience will want it and market it using proven methods. Not only do I share my processes and strategies for creating the best courses, I have a lot of industry experience so I can answer questions and help you avoid making common mistakes. If you want to learn more about my coaching, go to the coaching page to learn more.

Most people are hesitant to spend money on coaches, though. They do not view it as an investment. Yet, coaches provide clarity for our ideas and help us expand our audience. Jason will help us avoid making common mistakes in your business and help you be authentic. We are all learning how to become more effective teachers and this will help.

Jason Van Orden’s Bio

Jason helps thought leaders to reach a larger audience with their ideas, create new income streams from their expertise, and build business models that align with their goals. As a consultant, trainer, and strategist, he draws from thirteen years of researching top Internet influencers as well as personal experience gained by launching over 60 online courses, teaching more than 7000 entrepreneurs, and generating 6 million dollars in online course sales, and 8 million downloads of his podcast. His mission is to help more visionaries with impactful ideas to reach the people they serve best and the problems they are uniquely positioned to solve.

Jason’s background on how he started with online businesses with information marketing.

JVO: When I discovered information marketing, I dove into it when I was marketing for my band. I started doing consulting and it brought me to the whole world of packaging your expertise and selling it for profit.

I began with a seminar about everything I knew about digital marketing back in 2003. I made a net profit of about 8000 dollars to teach what I love. Before social media, I used to post in forums to expand my audience. I then launched a podcast and haven’t looked back from there, just creating brands from my knowledge and teaching people to do the same.

Key to business success

What would you say have been some of your keys to your business success over the years? What do you think are the keys to your success?

JVO: I used to be blocked up by having prior success. How could I keep up with what I have already achieved? When I moved on after creating my podcast, it became more of intuition, quick start and experimentation from there.

When I advise people on strategy, my approach is that it is a series of hypothesis and experiments. I ask them what feels like a good experiment to try after I have given them the factors and criteria.

Course creators should look for frameworks over formulas in the online marketing world. Keep in mind that not everything that has worked for someone else will perfectly work for another one.

Breaking down the important bits of it all, it is important to add on to the skeleton such as who people are, their business and their audience. Course creators have to create something that will keep them ahead of the game.

They should be careful, however, not lose sight of their uniqueness; what they want to bring to their world. If that happens, they will not have unique perspectives to bring to the world and they can get drowned out.

Testing of ideas beforehand

Before someone spends a lot of time on creating an online course, what strategies do you have on testing their ideas?

JVO: My predominant idea was a small eBook or a short course. It is easier for one to sell as a smaller thing and build up their portfolio from there. Also, the building of their educational business without limitations of inventory and time. I flipped this.

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Next Episode

7 Simple Things to Improve Your Online Courses Sales

This article dives into how course creators can improve their online course sales. First of all, online courses are more about your students and the best way to serve them than simply looking to sell to your audience. Nonetheless, below are seven simple things a course creator can do to improve their sales.

Are you looking to grow your audience and create, market & sell more courses? What training and content will help you the most? I’d love to help! Pick what you need most at onlinecoursecoach.com/vote to share your thoughts of how I can best help you. As a thank you, I created a free training called “3 Simple but Powerful Ways to Grow Your Email List” when you fill out the survey.

[ctt template=”5′′ link=”Odefd” via=”no” ]Sales is about telling stories of past client’s success, not convincing someone to buy. – Jeff Long[/ctt]

1. Get crystal clear on who your audience is, what their problems are and how your courses solve their problem

Start by defining your audience, especially if you’re starting out with your courses. Conduct surveys and try to get feedback from your audience just to understand their problem. Not sure where to start? Go to resources page and check the “5 Ways to Build an Audience for Your Online Course”. Aim your courses in solving those particular problems and make sure the content is connected to your mission. If you have been in business for some time, then you should already have a good understanding of your audience needs.

2. Only give out what is absolutely necessary for each course

Many people want to pack too much into a single course. The truth is, students usually get overwhelmed or intimidated by a ton of information. Course creators must learn how to calculate the minimum amount of content that gets the maximum amount of value. Give students bite-size chunks rather than a full bundle that would be hard to consume. If you want a detailed guide on this, follow this link to learn how to create courses that don’t overwhelm students.

3. Build trust with your audience

No one will buy from you if they don’t know you, like or trust you. Try to connect with your audience regardless of its size and find out what they need in a course, which goes back to point number one. A course should always come after getting feedback from your audience and not before. Make sure that you’re involved in a community (s) that are in alignment with your course.

4. Build a community that grows your impact and influence

There are several platforms that course creators can utilize in building their communities. These include Facebook/LinkedIn groups, Facebook Live videos, YouTube Live videos, podcasts, meetups, among other social media platforms. As long you are providing valuable content, people are most likely to pay attention to it. When it comes to Facebook, for example, here are a few ways on how you can maximize the use Facebook Live videos to your advantage.

5. Have a pre-marketing and post-marketing strategy in place

Course creators ought to build their courses with a plan rather than throwing everything together and hoping for success. Pre-marketing strategies are all about building your audience and growing your audience. This is where things such as building email lists, starting a podcast, creating a Facebook group, and meetups come in. It’s about getting people to know you without necessarily doing much of selling.

On the other hand, post-marketing involves circling back to your already established audience and launching your new content. Running Facebook ads, YouTube ads, and doing joint ventures should be high on your post-marketing strategies.

6. Treat your courses like a business

Be available to your students without giving too much of your time. This idea stems from one of the successful students who has benefited from the onlinecoursecoach.com. Her name is Janet. Janet has a great course, she has established a social media community for her courses and everything seems to go in the right direction except for one problem – she spends a lot of time on her Facebook group. Indeed, you want to be available for your students but the amount of time you spend with them should match the price of the course. Additionally, keep in mind the effort you put into preparing a course. If you want to learn more about pricing s...